Sometimes I worry about the things my brain dredges up – Tales of Suspense #74

I think I’ve mentioned before that I really don’t need any extra impetus to pick up a nice Silver Age Marvel issue, no matter the title.  Though this was no exception, there was something else that forced my hand:

You see that Nazi giant head/flying wing monstrosity on there?  You want to know what it made me think of?  You really want to know?  All right, you asked for it.  This:

Thank you, comic book, for bringing an image of Sean Connery in thigh-highs and a red diaper to the forefront of my thoughts.

Lest you think I’m too crazy, there’s a simple reason for this mental association.  The image of Sir Sean (yes, he was knighted after he posed thusly) comes from a largely forgotten film called Zardoz.  I’ve just watched the whole movie once, and there are really only two things I can remember from the flick.  One, there was a giant flying stone head in the movie, which is, of course, the association it has with the above TOS ish.  Two, there was much hubbub at one point in the flick about Connery’s character getting an erection.  If you want to know more about this big sprawling bag of celluloid weirdness, I recommend reading its Wikipedia entry.  I think I’ve said about as much as I want to about it.

The Captain America/Flying Nazi Head story is the second feature.  The flying head is a doomsday weapon designed by the Red Skull during World War II and awakened in the present (well, the 60’s present).  It has the potential to blow up the Earth, and, naturally, Cap stops it.  The Iron Man feature comes first, and I found that one to be a bit more enjoyable.  IM is low on power and summons Pepper to come help him get recharged.  He has to power up and get to an operating room where an experimental machine called an Enervator, if used, will turn the patient (Happy Hogan) into a freak.  IM gets juiced up but arrives too late at the hospital and Freak Hogan escapes, leaving us to wait until next time for the final showdown.

I liked “Adam Austin’s” art (Austin was a psudonym used at the time by the great and IMO historically underrated Gene Colan) in the Iron Man story and Kirby’s “layouts” in the Cap installment packed the usual visual punch.  The real highlight for me was IM/Stark getting a phone call from a U.S. Senator while he’s getting charged up and the pissed off pol demands the specs for the IM armor.  I understand that there’s going to be a similar plotline in the upcoming Iron Man 2, and I’m gratified to know that Favreau, Downey and Co. are mining material from these classic stories (though I’m sure the government has at many times wanted to get their hands on the IM blueprints in the character’s fictional history).

All in all, a solid issue.  It was even good enough to knock images of a bediapered Sean Connery out of my head, and thank heavens for that.